The collapse of Great Southern
For anyone reading this from outside Australia, Great Southern is an agribusiness company which recently went into receivership.
Along with another failed company, Timbercorp, it owns a lot of land in the Green Triangle region of South East South Australia and Western Victoria.
I am angry with the failure of these companies and the lack of action from governments and authorities to investigate.
Again for the benefit of overseas readers, Great Southern and Timbercorp relied on Managed Investment Schemes (MIS) to buy land and plant trees.
Many investors were attracted to these schemes because they offered an immediate tax deduction and a long-term return. (more…)
Young Woman of the Year Awards
I came across a link to the YEN Young Woman of the Year Awards.
Being Sunday, I took the time to visit and read the profiles for nominees in the categories for business and community vision.
None inspired me particularly, except Carolyn Creswell, who won my vote.
At age 18, Carolyn Creswell was, like many university students, working part time. She worked one day a week in a bakery specialising in handmade muesli, and was told that she was going to lose her job because the owners wanted to sell. So for $1000, Carolyn and the other employee decided to buy the tiny business together. Carman’s Fine Foods was born. Sixteen years later, and Carolyn now runs a thriving multinational company.
Here is a link to her website. The philosophy is that “food should come from the kitchen and not the chemist”.
Meet a mining man
Perth woman Angela Nathan will launch a new website MeetAMiningMan.com.au on May 30.
The aim is to “increase the likelihood of successful, happy relationships in WA within the current resources boom”.
The website will “provide a link between single men working on a fly in, fly out (FIFO) roster and single local women who are aware and accepting of the FIFO lifestyle.” (more…)
Automatic subscription fees
I’ve been caught out several times in the past year with businesses and organisations taking automatic payments from my credit card for subscription services.
It always makes me feel a mixture of silly and peeved.
Silly that I didn’t read the fine print when I signed up for the service and peeved that I didn’t knowingly authorise it and wasn’t notified.
I’m talking big names here like McAfee and Ancestry.com.
Oh, I know they haven’t broken any laws and the automatic payment information is probably as prominent as other text on the sign-up page.
The lesson I’ve learned is to read all the subscription detail more thoroughly.
I really think though, they should make the automatic payment opt-in, rather than opt-out. There are plenty of other service providers who operate that way.
And they should certainly send the subscriber a reminder.
Monkey business
According to BBC News, the deputy mayor of Delhi has died after failing to defend himself from a horde of wild monkeys: 
SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys. The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.
It’s not too hard to imagine an Australian equivalent for politicians being attacked by animals. For instance, the way the pork barrel is rolling around in the current election campaign, Kevin Rudd and John Howard are both at risk of being trampled in a stampede of pigs.
GoPC virtual operating system
I discovered an intriguing new technology gadget tonight thanks to the Google ads on my own site. It’s called GoPC and it’s a virtual operating system that provides a free service for accessing programs and data storage online.
It uses Suse Linux and provides a limited number of programs with the free service. These include Firefox, Gaim, Evolution, Open Office Writer and Digikam.
There are options to install the virtual computer on a PC or USB memory stick. I’m currently testing it with an installation on my laptop’s hard drive. I’m effectively running a Linux system in parallel with Windows XP and I’m able to switch easily between the two. (more…)
Web sites and hosting
I’ve had a reseller account with Site 5 for over a year now. The price is good and the reliability is excellent, but security is of some concern.
On several occasions I’ve suffered hacker attacks and that’s never happened to me with other hosting providers. That’s not to say the others are safer, but maybe Site5 is a target because of its size and systems.
Most recently, all index files on all sites were replaced with hacker propaganda. This was extremely disruptive.
I know that backups are essential but like many others I was caught out on that front. Fortunately I’ve been able to restore all my sites except a couple, however it was rather time consuming. I still have to fix my family history site and a client’s business site.
I’ve taken the opportunity to upgrade Word Press and SMF scripts, and on this site at least, to restore commenting.
